The Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group works to help people whose rights have been violated and investigates cases involving such abuse, as well as assessing the overall human rights situation in Ukraine. The Group also seeks to develop awareness of human rights issues through public events and its various publications

The May 25 presidential elections will take place under any circumstances and from the legal point of view will be considered to have taken place. This was the message from Andriy Mahera, deputy head of the Central Election Commission speaking at a press conference on Wednesday.

While nobody wants it to be impossible to vote at certain polling stations, the present conditions make this eventuality impossible to exclude. He stresses that their task now must be to ensure that this affects the smallest possible number of polling stations.

Asked whether the elections would be considered legitimate if voters were unable to vote in eastern oblasts, Mahera replied:

“Regardless of the number of polling stations where voting for certain reasons does not take place, and even regardless of the number of district election commissions where voting doesn’t take place, the elections as a whole around Ukraine will be considered as having taken place from the legal point of view. That is a fact and the relevant provision is contained in the law on the presidential elections. I find it difficult to believe that we could be talking about the Luhansk or Donetsk oblasts not voting at all”. He did, however, state that the latest events in these two oblasts had forced the CEC to close 14 offices of the State Registrar of Voters, seven in each of these oblasts.

Mahera warned against jumping ahead and assuming a worst case scenario and sad that all government bodies should be ready for elections on May 25.

It is widely believed that the disturbances, including the seizure of official buildings by well-armed pro-Russian militants are orchestrated by Moscow, with one of the main motives cited being to disrupt the May 25 elections. These will make the Kremlin’s line about the “illegimacy’ of the interim administration in place since former president Viktor Yanukovych fled that much more difficult.